Flussbad Berlin

The Flussbad Berlin is a project to convert the Spree Canal in Berlin-Mitte . The canal is to be ecologically cleaned and used as a river bath . The project, conceived by the architects and artists group realities: united , has been funded by the federal government and the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment as a “National Urban Development Project” since 2014. Since 2012, the non-profit association “Flussbad Berlin e. V. ”for the realization of the project. Since 2014, the plan has been discussed by an increasingly broader public and in the media.

place

The 1.8 kilometer long Spree Canal branches off to the southwest from the wider main Spree at Fischerinsel and bends northwest just before the Gertraudenbrücke . It flows back into the main Spree at the Bode Museum . Together with this it flows around the Museum Island . Public access to the water of the Spree Canal has not yet been possible at any point. One of the last historical uses was a river bath not far from the Berlin Palace, which was finally closed in 1924 for hygienic reasons.

Underwater photo of the canal bottom in the Kupfergraben near the Pergamon Museum in July 2016

Water quality of the Spree Canal

The Spree, to whose water system the Spree Canal belongs, is currently being polluted by various discharges. The most serious are the consequences of regular overflows from the combined sewer system . About 20 to 30 times a year, the rainwater discharged into the sewer system exceeds the capacity of the sewer pipes and their contents, together with the sewage from Berlin households, i.e. faeces, rinsing residues and hygiene items, are discharged into the river uncleared. It takes several days for the river to recover from this massive pollution. Without the regular overflow of the sewer system, the Spree would be so clean that it is suitable for swimming. The Müggelsee , which is located in front of the overflow discharge points and through which the Spree flows, usually has bathing water quality. In times when the last overflow of the sewer system in the inner city area was long enough ago, the general water quality in the Spree Canal is good. The Spree Canal then has a visual depth of up to 2.5 meters at times.

In order to achieve bathing water quality in the Spree Canal, the limit values ​​defined in the EU Bathing Water Directive , in particular for Escherichia coli and enterococci, must be observed. This is particularly true in the case of sewer overflows and the resulting high and dynamic loads.

Project presentation according to the specifications of the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing.

Project

The "Flussbad Berlin" project pursues several goals: cleaning up the river, access to the water, creating an attractive, non-commercial and public place in the center of the city, utilizing the fallow Spree Canal and creating an ecological water landscape in the area of ​​the Fischerinsel. The channel is to be divided into three sections according to the ideas of the initiators.

In the upper area of ​​the canal between the Inselbrücke and the Gertraudenbrücke, the course of the river is to be brought into a more natural state. The concreted bank walls are to be partially removed in order to create a “soft” green bank embankment. A kind of “resting place” for flora and fauna is to be created within the kilometer-long canalised inner-city Spree and a restoration of the river's ecological balance is to be promoted. At the same time, the walker should have the opportunity to get directly to the water. In the area of ​​the Friedrichsgracht a plant filter is to clean the polluted water over a length of 300 meters. The natural filter is designed to guide the water through an 80 centimeter deep gravel sediment and to lead it through a drainage layer underneath into the swimming area beyond the lock bridge. The planned swimming area is between the Schleusenbrücke and Monbijou Bridge, i.e. H. in the section between the Humboldt Forum and the Bode Museum. The canal is to be made accessible here by stepped bank walls at the Lustgarten and the Humboldt Forum - for staying on the water and for swimming. At the northern tip of the island, a new weir is to delimit the clean water area from the main Spree. The future floatability of the river is also intended to be evidence of the improved water quality of the Spree in this area and, as a model project, to advertise a different approach to natural resources in the city.

The greatest technical challenge for the realization of the river pool are the overflows from the mixed water sewer system, which flush untreated wastewater into the sewer during heavy rain. Although these heavily polluting discharges are cleaned by the plant filter on Friedrichsgracht, the problem remains that a particularly large overflow pipe opens above the lock bridge in the planned swimming area. In order to get this load under control, a management structure is to be built into this pipe. This is intended to hold back the majority of the wastewater that occurs there and to gradually divert it to the sewage treatment works after the rain has stopped. This would prevent wastewater from entering the swimming area.

In 2014/15 the association had a technical feasibility study carried out with funds from the LOTTO Foundation Berlin, the results of which were presented in 2015. The technical feasibility of the water purification and the use of the Spree Canal as a river bath have been confirmed by independent scientists.

Association "Flussbad Berlin eV"

The non-profit association Flussbad Berlin e. V. was founded on November 2nd, 2012. In November 2014, the club under the "program was awarded" National projects of urban development "of federal and state funding in the amount of 4 million euros. As part of this promotion are by the club until the end of 2018 ^[date] the further development of the project idea and the political The association has been operating an office with currently 7 permanent employees since February 2015. The association has so far (as at: 2018) published three “annuals”, the first in December 2015, in which the project was presented in detail An interview with the former Federal Environment Minister Klaus Töpfer , who supports the project. In December 2016, the second annual issue was published, which is mainly dedicated to the ecological and cultural dimension of the project. It contains articles by Horst Bredekamp , Katharina Grosse , Barbara Vinken and Harald, among others Welzer . The third annual issue was published in May 2018 and contains, among other things, Int Interviews with Hubert Weiger ( BUND ), Olaf Zimmermann ( German Cultural Council ) and Jörg Rocholl (President of ESMT ), in which they also speak out in favor of realizing the project.

Activation of the place

Flussbad Cup

Since 2015, the Flussbad Cup has been held in the project area between Monbijoubrücke in the north of the Spree Canal and Lustgarten, an all-day, sporting swimming event once in the summer season, which offers both competitors and leisure swimmers the opportunity to swim over a distance of 1,000 m (from 2019 over 1,500 m) to explore the Kupfergraben on Museum Island from the water.

In the run-up to the event, the water quality of the Spree and its tributary is regularly checked for compliance with the limit values ​​of the bathing water parameters. The swimming course is only released on the day of the event if the prescribed limit values ​​have not been exceeded and there was no heavy rain in the 24-48 hours before the start of the event - and the resulting mixed water overflow events .

In 2015 almost 100 swimmers competed, in 2016 more than 200. Due to the Berlin rain of the century in 2017, the swim had to be canceled at short notice on the planned day of the event. Instead, the Flussbad song composed by Barbara Morgenstern was premiered by the Choir of World Cultures and all visitors on site. In 2018, more than 400 swimmers took part. The patron was Senator for Urban Development Katrin Lompscher.

Awards and Promotion

• 2011 Holcim Award Europe (Gold), endowed with 100,000 US dollars
• 2012 Holcim Award Global (Bronze), endowed with 50,000 US dollars
• 2014 Funding by the "LOTTO-Stiftung Berlin" for the creation of an in-depth concept and a hydrological report (110,000 €)
• 2014 inclusion in the federal program “National Urban Development Projects”. Funding from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in the amount of 2.6 million euros. Furthermore, funding of 1.3 million euros from the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment.
• 2019 Funding in the federal program "National Urban Development Projects" of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the State of Berlin for the construction of the first flight of stairs in the project area at Schlossplatz.

debate

The planned river bath has been widely discussed in public, especially since 2014, which is also reflected in numerous newspaper articles. In May 2015, Lothar Müller pointed out in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that numerous organizational questions had to be clarified before it could be implemented. In the same month Ricardo Tarli saw the project in the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” as an expression of a changed zeitgeist: “The Flussbad is an expression of the lifestyle of an active and environmentally conscious generation for whom a clean river is more important than owning a car. Her credo: We bring nature back to the city. "Especially the" 1. Berliner Flussbad Pokal ”, a swimming competition with around 80 participants in the designated swimming area on Museum Island, organized by the Flussbad Berlin Association on July 12, 2015, received a lot of press coverage - both in advance and afterwards. While the "Zeit" called the project on the one hand "brilliant" and "spectacular", on the other hand "decadent and a little dirty" and the Süddeutsche demanded that Berlin must "dare to take the plunge", reported Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Foundation Cultural possession, in a guest post in the "Tagesspiegel" concerns about a development into a "party zone". Tim Edler, one of the project authors, replied that there was “no causal connection between swimming and partying”. The international reception of the project is predominantly positive. Michael Kimmelman in the “New York Times” and Max Kutner in “Newsweek” see the Flussbad as the symbolic project of a modern, future-oriented capital Berlin.

It is sometimes assumed that the Spree Canal's quality as a federal waterway could result in conflicts. The Berlin Waterways and Shipping Office stated in August 2015: “After a first rough legal review, the concerns of shipping in the Spree Canal do not prevent the river bath from being implemented.” However, more details can only be said once the planning has progressed further. In this context, Klaus Töpfer , former Federal Environment Minister, advocated the thesis in 2015 that “such a section of the Spree could certainly be dismantled”. Conflict potential, on the other hand, lies in the fact that the landing stage of the Berlin Water Taxi City Tours shipping company is located in the Spree Canal . The functionality of existing in the southern area public sports boat - lying site would not be affected by the river pool. Already today it can only be approached from the east, as the passage to the north is blocked by a weir at the level of the Foreign Office.

Historic river baths in Berlin

• Bathing establishment at the Schloss Freiheit, officially "Bathing establishment behind the Werderschen Mühlen"
• Bathing establishment at the Waisenbrücke
• Municipal river bath Lichtenberg

Comparable current projects

The Flussbad Berlin is part of numerous international projects for the revitalization of inner-city rivers. Similar projects exist in the following cities:

• Boston: Charles River Swimming Club
• Bruges: Canal Swimmer's Club for the 2015 Triennial
• Dublin: Dublin City Liffey Swime
• London: Thamesbaths
• Los Angeles: Revitalization of the Los Angeles River
• Munich: Isarlust
• New York: + POOL
• Paris: New riverside landscape on the Seine

See also

• Spree2011

Web links

• Official website of the Flussbad Berlin Association
• Article from The Source Magazine, 2016
• Article from the period, 2016
• Article from the taz, 2017
• Article from the Tagesspiegel, 2017
• Article in SZ-Magazin, 2017
• Article from the Tagesspiegel, 2018
• Article from Architectural Record, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.bmub.bund.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/pm/artikel/bundesbauministerium-foerdert-herausragende-staedtebau-projekte-mit-50-millionen-euro/
2. ↑ http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/aktuell/pressebox/archiv_volltext.shtml?arch_1411/nachricht5426.html
3. ↑ Baden in the Spree: Why Berlin still does not have a river pool - Berliner Zeitung. In: berliner-zeitung.de. Retrieved December 20, 2015 . 
4. ↑ http://www.flussbad-berlin.de/-/151112_machbarkeitsstudie?inheritRedirect=true
5. ↑ https://www.berliner-wasserratten.de/2-uncategorised/238-4-berliner-flussbad-pokal
6. ↑ https://www.berliner-kurier.de/berlin/kiez---stadt/ab-ins-nasse-vergnuegen--na--wie-schmeckt-euch-die-spree---24336918
7. ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/flussbad-in-berlin-230-schwimmer-wollen-die-spree-erobern/13812938.html
8. ↑ https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/starkregen-im-juni-2017-als-berlin-unter-wasser-stand/22749052.html
9. ↑ https://www.rbb24.de/panorama/beitrag/2018/07/flussbad-pokal-berlin-spree-schwimmen.html
10. ↑ http://www.abendblatt-berlin.de/2018/07/04/anschwimmen-in-der-spree/
11. ↑ http://www.lafargeholcim-foundation.org/Awards/regional-holcim-awards-2011-europe/winners
12. ↑ http://www.lafargeholcim-foundation.org/Article/berliner-flussbad-projekt-gewinnt-globalen-preis-fur-nachhaltige
13. ↑ https://www.bbsr.bund.de/BBSR/DE/FP/ZIP/NPS/2018/foerderprojekte-2018/05-foerderprojekte.html?nn=1202346¬First=true&docId=2044474#doc2044474bodyText2
14. ↑ Lothar Müller: facing the water. In: sueddeutsche.de . May 14, 2015, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
15. ↑ Ricardo Tarli, Berlin: Everything in the flow. In: nzz.ch. May 26, 2015, accessed October 14, 2018 . 
16. ^ Tobias Timm: Urban development: Museum Island outdoor pool . In: The time . No. 28/2015 ( online ).
17. ^ Sally McGrane: Flussbad Berlin: Decadent and a little dirty. In: Zeit Online. July 13, 2016, accessed December 15, 2016 . 
18. ^ Laura Weissmüller: City, beach, castle. In: sueddeutsche.de . July 7, 2015, accessed October 13, 2018 . 
19. ↑ http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/welterbe-contra-badespass-flussbad-an-der-museumsinsel-bitte-nicht/12041200.html
20. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/12/arts/design/the-flussbad-plan-in-berlin-reimagines-a-canal-for-the-people.html?_r=0
21. ↑ http://www.newsweek.com/2015/12/11/two-brothers-want-make-arm-berlins-river-swimming-pool-399025.html
22. ^ WSA head of department Stefan Sühl on August 9, 2015 in the taz. http://www.taz.de/!5218609/
23. ↑ Interview with Klaus Töpfer in: Flussbad Berlin, Annual Issue 1, December 2015, p. 25
24. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
25. ↑ leinsteropensea.ie: Sea Swimming in Dublin and East Coast of Ireland
26. ↑ thamesbaths.com
27. ↑ isarlust.org